My first speaking engagement as a published author will be this weekend! I’ll be talking about my journey to publication and sharing about Finding Angel. If you’re out this way, stop by!
Here are the details:
Location: Bloomingdale Library, 1906 Bloomingdale Ave., Valrico, FL 33596-6204
Date: Saturday, February 4th, 2012
Time: 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.
I will have copies of my novels and anthologies available for purchase.
Most interviews focus on similar questions, but I recently had the opportunity to be interviewed by someone who has read a lot of my short stories as well as Finding Angel. He dug in and really asked some awesome questions–things about Finding Angel and my writing in general that you won’t find anywhere else!
Check it all out on “Jeff Chapman’s Writing.”
There are now TWO contests in which you can vote for Finding Angel:
The Grace Awards are open for reader nominations. A short–very short!–email is all it takes to cast your vote. Details can be found HERE.
The Family Fiction Readers Choice Awards is even easier to enter–just a simple form to fill out. You only vote in the categories you want to. Click HERE.
In both instances, remember–Finding Angel is YA and fantasy 
. And in the Family Fiction awards I fit “favorite new author” as well (er, I hope!).
A reader has chosen Finding Angel as her “Book of the Year” for 2011. Big contests are awesome to win, I’m sure, but it is truly heartwarming to have a “real” reader declare that my novel was her favorite out of all the books she read in a year. I am honored.
So, thank you, Heather Titus!
And for the rest of ya’ll, head on over to Heather’s blog, Magical Ink, and enter to win a copy of Finding Angel.
The Grace Awards are reader-driven. Please follow THIS LINK to read how to cast your vote for Finding Angel in the Young Adult category. Your vote could be the one that ensures this award and a whole slew of new readers for Finding Angel. No pressure, though 
.
I was thrilled to see that Finding Angel has gotten seventeen reviews so far on Amazon, almost all of them five-star. This is from the latest one:
The author respects her young character, (and her readers) by infusing Angel with just the right amount of intelligence and self-reliance as she puts the puzzle pieces of her anything-but-ordinary life together. The fantasy and magic are woven into the story so deftly that they never take center-stage but seem completely “natural”. You learn as Angel learns, but what it all means is what keeps the pages turning.
Want a chance to win a signed copy of Finding Angel? Oh, and what about a copy of Chicken Soup for the Soul: Just for Preteens to go along with it? Not enough? Then, two anthologies as well.
Visit my blog and follow the instructions you find there to enter the contest. It’s easy, I promise. But quick–I’ll pick the winner on December 13.
The number of reviews for Finding Angel is growing steadily. You can now find fifteen on Amazon.
And yesterday I got an email from a reader who said, “I’m more than half-way through it. Very well done! The science/magic reminds me of Madeleine L’Engle, one of my fav authors.”
My response was sheer joy. You see, if I were to choose any author to be compared to, it would be Madeline L’Engle. She is probably my biggest influence as far as writing, and my “first love” when it came to reading fantasy. I must have read A Wrinkle in Time a dozen times at least as a kid.
No other news to report at the moment. Quick reminder–this site is mainly for info on Finding Angel, but if you’d like to come sit and visit, go to my regular blog at www.katheckenbach.com.
I’m the guest blogger today over at Mike Duran’s blog, deCompose. I talk about Finding Angel and my reason for writing a book with magic. Please come visit me, and feel free to comment with your thoughts on “Magic in Christian Fiction.”
Click HERE to visit the digital edition of the October issue of the Valrico, FL, “Osprey Observer.” When you’re there, “turn” to page 7 to find the article–”Fantasy Genre Welcomes New Book by Local Author.”
